Healing
by Anniebanani21
Summary: That was when she looked up from her blood soaked figure and into the chair across from her. He sat there, cut open brutally in several places. The blood covered the cell floor. It began rising with her screams as she figured out who the mutilated body belonged to. Tiva. Season 7. One-shot.


**Just a small one-shot that came to me suddenly. Angsty, kind of sad, and a little disturbing. I hope it wasn't too out of character, but I think in this situation, they wouldn't be themselves. Please read and review.**

**Rating: T **

**Pairing: Tiva**

**Spoilers: Yeah…somewhat. For season 7**

**Summary: That was when she looked up from her blood soaked figure and into the chair across from her. He sat there, cut open brutally in several places. The blood covered the cell floor. It began rising with her screams as she figured out who the mutilated body belonged to. Tiva. Season 7.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS. **

**Healing**

The heat was unbearable. She was strapped to a chair again. There wasn't any pain this time though. For some reason she felt pain inside of her, as if her heart knew something that she didn't know yet. The bag over her head was making it very hard to breath in this cell. Sweat was everywhere, as was something else. She didn't know what it was, only that it was rather warm- hell, what wasn't warm in the desert- and it wasn't from her body.

Before she could try to figure out what the liquid was, the bag was ripped off her head with such force that it almost gave her whip lash. As her eyes were adjusting to the light, she looked down to see what the liquid was. It appeared to be blood. A lot of it. She didn't know why there was so much blood if she didn't feel any pain.

That was when she looked up from her blood soaked figure and into the chair across from her. He sat there, cut open brutally in several places. The blood covered the cell floor. It began rising with her screams as she figured out who the mutilated body belonged to.

Tony's eyes stared accusingly into hers. She screamed his name to no avail. The blood on the floor continued to rise higher and higher. She was crying so hard now that it became difficult to scream his name anymore, but the blood still rose. She couldn't break free from her restraints, so she continued to scream.

All of the sudden Saleem was there. He was laughing and somehow immune to the rising levels of blood. He spit on what was left of Tony's body and disappeared. Ziva tried to yell at him to stop, but nothing came out. She gave up on screaming at the now gone Saleem, and continued screaming Tony's name. Not a single sound escaped her mouth. The blood was rising higher than her neck now. Soon she would not be able to breath.

Just as she thought she had surely drowned from the blood, she woke up. Ziva was covered in sweat and her clothes were clinging to her skin. Her hair was a complete mess and tears were still falling. It seemed so completely realistic to her. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but this is the first time it happened in front of Tony.

Tony was terrified. He was sleeping peacefully next to Ziva, after being assured that they were both adults and could share a bed when only one was available. They had stayed to their sides of the bed pretty well until Ziva started writhing around.

First she began thrashing, hitting Tony and the bedside table several times in the process. She hit him with full force too; there would definitely be major bruising in the morning. After a few fits of that, she started mumbling. The mumbling gradually became louder. In the time of about a minute and a half, the mumbling had developed into screaming. It was what she was screaming that made Tony freeze.

"TONY! TONY! NO, STOP! STOP! LEAVE HIM ALONE, YOU BASTARD! TONY! TONY!"

There was more screaming in between, before, and after, but it wasn't comprehendible. Some of it was Hebrew. Tony assumed it went along the same lines of what he could understand. She was dreaming about him? He must be doing something absolutely horrible for her to scream like that.

He figured he should try to wake her gently, not only for her sake, but also because he didn't want the entire population of Paris to hear her screams, as if they hadn't already. He tried stroking her hair and whispering her name.

She still wasn't waking up, but now she was writhing again. It was as if she was tied up or something in her dream because only her body was shaking. He tried to call her name louder now, and hold her down before she caused too much damage.

All of a sudden she jumped off the bed and started panting. She had tears rolling down her cheeks and in complete defense mode. Her eyes were glazed over as if she might still be in the dream state. Tony stood still as if she was a killer bee that would sting him if he blinked.

She collapsed to the ground rather hard and started sobbing. Tony assumed it would be safe to move now. He slowly climbed off the king size bed and sat down on the floor next to Ziva. He cautiously extended his hand and tenderly stroked her long, dark curls. He dared whisper her name so softly he didn't even know if she would hear it. She didn't respond to her name, so he talked louder.

"Shh, Ziva. I'm right here, Zi. It's me, Tony. It was only a bad dream. Shh."

Her sobs transitioned into slight shakes and tears rolling down her cheeks when she looked up at him. Her eyes weren't glazed over anymore, and she seemed to be calming down. Tony was pulling her up before she suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck tightly. Her tears were warm against his bare shoulder. He pushed his hand ever so lightly on the back of her head and moved her to the crook of his neck, allowing him to offer silent comfort with the movement of his head.

He planted a kiss on the top of her head before assuring her again that everything was alright. She moved one of her hands down to his chest to prop herself up against him and look him in the eyes. The emeralds were full of concern, curiosity, remnants of fear, and something else that she hadn't seen before.

"I was so scared…" Her voice was hoarse from screaming. Her eyes were blood shot and still full of tears. She had a look in her eyes that he hadn't seen since they rescued her from the- oh. It was crystal clear to him now. He was only hypothesizing this before, but the look in her eyes told him it was true. She was having a nightmare about Somalia. It involved him.

"I was too. I…I haven't seen you like this…"

He thought best not to bring up the cause of her nightmares. He wondered how many of them she's had. It's been six or so months since they rescued her, and it pained Tony to realize what she's been going through then and now. He knew all too well how scary the nightmares can be. He's been victim to them as well.

Too many nights he woke himself up screaming _her_ name. Thank god he didn't have one tonight. He wouldn't have to run all the way to her apartment if he did though because she was right next to him. He would have nightmares about them being too late, Salim getting bored, and having to sit and watch the horrible tortures he assumed happened.

"I don't want to talk about it, Tony… Can we just… sleep?"

Tony nodded and helped her up. After they were both in the bed, it was a silent understanding that they wouldn't sleep on their separate sides of the bed that night. Tony had his arms wrapped around Ziva as she was finally able to relax against him. There was nothing sexual about how they slept that night in the City of Lights.

Ziva's tears stopped dampening Tony's skin, and her snores started. Tony didn't mind though, as long as she wasn't having any more nightmares. She looked comfortable enough, and he slept well that night. He supposed they wouldn't talk about this for a long time, and nothing in their relationship would change physically for now. It would take time for her to heal physically and mentally, but he would be there every step of the way.

Tony would invite her over for more movie nights than before, insisting that it was late and she should just stay at his house. They were mature adults, so they could share Tony's bed, not that he minded one bit. There were a few more nightmares, but he was there to assure her that it was all over and she was safe with him. They never spoke any words other than his generic reassurances after each nightmare. He knew they wouldn't talk about it for a while, but they will after she heals.

Tony's bucket list: Discuss Paris.

**Please review!**


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